Unbeaten Carolina Panthers open as one-point underdogs against 3-7 Dallas Cowboys

The unbeaten Carolina Panthers opened as one-point underdogs against the Dallas Cowboys (3-7), who sit in last place in the NFC while the Panthers (10-0) are in first.

It was a head-scratcher for a lot of observers, and Panthers coach Ron Rivera went as far as agreeing with a media member who questioned if the betting line is disrespectful to one of the league’s two unbeaten teams.

“We’ll just take it in stride,” Rivera said. “As I said, we’ll play them one at a time, and as far as we’re concerned, everybody’s 0-0, and we’ll see how it comes out.

“It is a little disrespectful, but apparently they know something we don’t. We’re just going to prepare and get ourselves ready to play on Thursday.”

While the Cowboys are 3-7, they’re 3-0 with Tony Romo as their quarterback. Romo returned last week from a broken collarbone that kept him out for seven games.

Las Vegas is betting on Romo being the difference.

“The Panthers are an underdog for only the third time this year and to a 3-7 team. Why? A desperate situation for the Cowboys and an optimistic boost with their leader back,” Johnny Avello, executive director of race and sports at Wynn Las Vegas, told Covers.com.

But by Monday afternoon, the line had moved in favor of the Panthers. The Cowboys were one-point underdogs as of 4 p.m. Monday.

The Panthers are just the second 10-0 team in NFL history to open as an underdog in their 11th game. The 1985 Bears were the first such team – with Rivera as a linebacker, against the Cowboys.

The Bears were two-point underdogs against the Cowboys. Chicago won 44-0 en route to winning the Super Bowl that season. It was the worst loss in Cowboys history to that point.

“We’ve heard it, so it’s out there, and we all know how it turned out so we’ll hopefully think about that and get ourselves ready to go,” Rivera said.

Rivera fondly remembered that week. Chicago coach Mike Ditka felt his team was too uptight on Saturday night, so he played a stand-up bit by comedian Bob Nelson where Nelson impersonates different stereotypical football players.

“We laughed pretty good and came out the next day and had a pretty good day,” Rivera said.

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Unbeaten Carolina Panthers open as one-point underdogs against 3-7 Dallas Cowboys."